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Doug Shaughnessy and Lee Ann Lambdin noticed a change in the glossy 12 South: It was less funky and diverse than when they moved in a dozen years ago.

So they sold a little over a year ago — at a big profit — and bought in East Nashville near McFerrin Park, where basketball courts are bombarded with kids on a sunny Saturday afternoon and older homes abut newer public housing.

They've become regular diners at Dino's, just a short drive away.

“Where do you see Formica anymore?” Shaughnessy asked, seated on a bar stool, waiting for two pieces of locally made pie to-go. “This could remind me of my mom’s old kitchen table. Except my mom never cooked very well.”

While a new, trendy scene springs up in East Nashville that brings with it expensive drinks and meals, Dino’s has hung onto its history — albeit a less grimy version. It hung on to the original Formica tables, too.

“There might be a beautiful historic house, then there are two "tall and skinnies" on one lot. That is what we call new Nashville,” said Dino’s regular Ryan Schemmel. 28, co-founder of Fort Houston, a warehouse space for creatives. “That’s kind of mixed in with places where you pay 20 bucks for two pieces of ravioli on a plate.”

Dino’s opened in the 1970s, but the building predates that by 40 years, current owner Alex Wendkos said.

“It's been around forever,” she said. “Everyone knows that and appreciates that, and I wanted to save it from becoming the new Nashville.”

When Wendkos and her business partner Miranda Pontes took over in fall 2014, rumors began swirling, she said. “We were going to ruin it and create a new concept,” she said, recalling the top complaint.

The changing face of East Nashville gave locals good reason to be suspicious.

From 2008-13, more than 75 businesses popped up in the area around Dino's bringing with them employment opportunities.. But that growth also put pressure on the establishments that made East Nashville unique.

“There were so many new places popping up, coming from out of town,” Wendkos said. “This was my chance to save an old staple.”

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That meant some work: About two months of modernization and wiping the film — a ghost left behind by years of indoor smoking — from the wood-paneled walls. Garish blue paint was stripped off, the low-slung ceiling raised several feet.

Nests — rats and cockroaches — were found and removed from their hiding places. The cloudywindows, with their neon beer signs and painted with “Dino’s ice cold beer,” stayed the same.

Keeping the dive bar divey but welcoming became key. And in doing that, Wendkos, 29, has created the perfect blend for loyal customers and a whole new crowd.

Hap Duncan found the bar again through Southern Living Magazine. He remembers eating at the building in 1969, before a Dino’s ever existed.

“It kind of looks like it did back then,” Duncan said. “The burgers were wonderful … they’re still wonderful.”

When Alex Robinson, 24, moved from East Tennessee to East Nashville two years ago, Dino’s became a staple because it felt unchanged despite all the changes around it. Robinson and his friends have a weekend routine that sometimes takes them to the chaos of crowded Five Points, but always ends with a Dino’s burger.

“This is what it was before it was gentrified and before this area was what it was,” the plaid-clad bearded barista said. “It’s a way for people to connect to older Nashville.”

The couple who fled gentrifying 12 South arrives at Dino's — early — about once a week. When friends from out of town say they've heard of The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden nearby, Shaughnessy brings them to Dino's.

“This place is good and it’s cheap,” he said. “There is no ‘vibe’ here. I like it that way.”

The feel of the bar is a point of pride for Wendkos and regulars. It's a place where you can still find $6 burgers and $2 7-oz bottles of Miller High Life.

Because two ravioli on a plate was never East Nashville or the rest of the city, Schemmel said. “That is why so many of my friends go to Dino’s.

“I just want you to put some cheese on my fries and let me drown in my sorrow.”

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

#NewNashville

Music City is transforming at a breathtaking rate. The New Nashville project captures a range of perspectives on this process as reported by the Tennessean reporting teams. The voices captured here undercut the popular stereotypes of Nashville’s citizens, its music and culture, its food, its faith and its future.

The major theme that emerged is that, at the moment, Nashville is engaged in a lengthy balancing act; weighing up the new opportunities emerging for longtime residents and recent arrivals with the values and qualities that made the city what it is.

VIDEOS: #NEWNASHVILLE
How newcomers are bringing Jefferson Street back to life | 1:30

Eva Evans is opening her veterinary business on Jefferson Street. She helps to explain the appeal to newcomers who have their eyes on living and opening new businesses in the Jefferson Street area.
George Walker VI / The Tennessean